Bangkok Post: Zoo owner unlikely to be punished

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Zoo owner unlikely to be punished

 

Orangutans not native so law won't cover case

 

PIYAPORN WONGRUANG

 

The owner of the privately-run Safari World Zoo who allegedly smuggled in

over 50 orangutans from Indonesia was likely to escape legal punishment as

the country's wildlife protection law did not cover a case involving

non-indigenous animals, forestry police officers said yesterday.

 

Former Forestry Police Chief Maj-Gen Sawek Pinsinchai, who headed the

investigation of the high-profile case, said the police had filed two

charges against the zoo's owner Pin Kewkacha after evidence showed that the

orangutans were illegally smuggled in from overseas.

 

Mr Pin was charged with violations of the Wildlife Preservation and

Protection Act and the Customs Act.

 

But the officers later found that the wildlife law did not cover cases of

non-native animals. Therefore, Mr Pin's only charge was illegal smuggling of

goods under the Customs Act.

 

However, as the accused had already handed over the orangutans to the

relevant state agencies, he could now walk free, said Maj-Gen Sawek.

 

Under the Customs Act, he said, wrongdoers would not face any legal actions

if he or she could settle the case with the Customs Department by agreeing

to hand over the smuggled goods.

 

" We can say that the case is closed, " said Pol Maj-Gen Sawek. " At least, the

animals are now under the protection of wildlife experts and will not have

to suffer in the zoo again. " " Wild animal smugglers hardly ever go to jail

because our wildlife protection law contains serious loopholes, " he said.

 

The police in late-2004 raided the Safari World zoo in the suburbs of

Bangkok and seized 110 animals that had been trained to perform daily Thai

boxing matches to entertain visitors.

 

Mr Pin, also the zoo's managing director, later surrendered to the police on

wildlife smuggling charges after DNA tests suggested that the 57 orangutans

seized from his zoo were not the offspring of registered apes.

 

Three of the animals had died over the past two years, so there are now 54

orangutans that will be repatriated to their place of origin, likely to be

Sumatra and Borneo islands in Indonesia.

 

The orangutans are currently being kept at the state-run Khao Pratub Chang

Wildlife Breeding Centre in Ratchaburi.

 

Schwann Tunhikorn, deputy director-general of the National Parks, Wildlife

and Plant Department, said wildlife experts from Thailand, Indonesia and

Malaysia had formed a joint task force to find the place of origin of the

primates and were preparing for the repatriation process.

 

Although the DNA tests by Kasetsart University confirmed that the 54

orangutans were smuggled in from another country, authorities need to find

out where exactly they came from by matching the DNA samples with those from

apes on Sumatra and Borneo islands.

 

It would take some time before the officials finished the DNA tests and

repatriated the animals, Mr Schwann said.

 

He assured that Thailand would return the orangutans to their place of

origin as soon as possible since the country was a party to the Convention

on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

(Cites), which requires swift repatriation of smuggled wildlife once they

have been seized.

 

Edwin Wiek, director of the Wildlife Friends of Thailand Foundation, urged

the authorities to speed up the DNA testing process to ensure that the

orangutans were sent home in a timely fashion.